After our pizza lunch, Dan called the meeting to order at
approximately 12:30 P.M. in Dwightís room at the Marriott during the 2004
National Federation of the Blind Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.Answering the roll call were:President Dan Hicks, First
Vice-President Kathy Davis, Second Vice-President J. D. Townsend, Treasurer Tom
Hartig, Secretary Carol Feazell and board members Gloria Hicks, Dwight Sayer and
Betty McNally (as soon as she could get free from the elevator fiasco); Joe
Minichiello was unable to make the convention and so was not present at our
meeting but was greatly missed.

Tom had no treasurerís report as we were yet in the midst of
finances and thus making reconciliation in an up-to-date fashion extremely
difficult.He could remind us that
we were basically spending faster than we were bringing in.All agreed we must get our brochure
out.

Gloria announced that she had our banquet table assignments for all
in our state chapter who had made banquet exchange arrangements with her.

We have our $103,000 that was pledged last year to the White Cane
fund.Then $2000 will be given to
the TenBroeck fund and $5000 White Cane this year.We will pledge $500 to the Imagine Fund
as well as offer 500 names of persons to be contacted.This was moved by J. D. and seconded by
Tom and passed unanimously.

Tom has been approached on the national level for fundraising.

Resolutions:J. D.
reported that in the Resolutions Committee, the coinage resolution had proved
somewhat controversial during the meeting.On the state level, our library resolution was urgent and had been dealt
with in part by the participation of many throughout the state rallying in
Orlando on Saturday, June 26.Work
is still to be done.

The Daytona Center is undergoing many changes and hopefully some
good ones from our NFBF prospective.

Dan then had to leave to take his part in the National Scholarship
Committee meeting so First Vice-President Kathy Davis took over the meeting from
here.

Back to the discussion about the Daytona Center, the custodialism
has to go; some are worried about their jobs there.The outcome of all this is yet
unknown.We want to see positive
changes and are not merely being confrontational.

Discussion followed about the resolution regarding the ID
nondriverís card.We felt that we
did not quite know where to go next to act upon this.Betty did some clarifying for many of
us.The Patriot Act was passed
which allowed for ID other than driverís licenses and passports.Florida has considered other than the
Driverís License and the Passports as secondary and thus not necessarily as
valid as those two items.We need
to strengthen or modify that Little Patriot Act of Florida to be more inclusive
of our state ID.

Another of our state resolutions was to strengthen the Guide Dog
Protection Act.Some of our members
are particularly strong in this regard and will be approached.

Tom who is also involved on the national level for Newsline tells
us that legal expertise in our national organization tells us that technically
Newsline can definitely be assisted in funding through the rehabilitation
department.Tom has assured us that
he will not give up his guide and direction of our Florida Newsline until it is
safely secured in an ongoing funded fashion.

Tom moved that we support Kathy in whatever ways that would be
appropriate should she choose to run for the chair of the State Rehabilitation
Council.J. D. seconded this motion
and it carried unanimously.

After quite a long discussion about things in general, the meeting
was adjourned at 2:05 P.M.